Is It Worth Signing Up for This Web Hosting Company? Bluehost Domain Names
Bluehost is the home of more than 2,000,000 websites.
This is a lot.
It is clear that they are doing something right by having such a large customer base. Their hosting plans are reliable and fast, and they offer helpful features for beginners as well as intermediates.
Bluehost also has helpful 24/7 live chat and phone support, and you can safely give them a try with their 30-day money-back guarantee.
There are also some downsides to this plan, such as higher renewal costs and restrictions on the cheapest one.
We only use real data to base our reviews, including uptime, speed, cost, and other relevant information.
Let’s have a look at Bluehost now to find out if they offer the quality website hosting services you are looking for. Bluehost Domain Names
Bluehost Video Review
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General Info & Hosting Overview
Our Verdict: 5.0
SPEED: 688ms (April 2020 – March 2021).
UPTIME: 99.95% (April 2020 to April 2021).
SUPPORT: Live Chat, Email, Phone, Knowledge Base, 24/7 Support
APPS: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, phpBB, and More Than 75+ Open Source Projects
FEATURES – Unlimited bandwidth, Unlimited websites and storage, No Metered Bandwidth, SSL Certificate and CDN Free, Spam Experts, Domain Privacy. WordPress 1-Click Install.
HOSTING PLANS – Shared, WordPress VPS, Reseller and Dedicated Servers
SITE TRANSFER: One WordPress site for free starting at $2.75/mo Bluehost Hosting Pros: Bluehost was established in 2003 and has a lot of experience. They know what makes a good hosting service.
The introductory price is affordable, the customer support team is helpful and easy to reach, and there are many features that come with every hosting plan. They provide high-speed server speeds and reliable uptime.
Let’s look closer at Bluehost’s strengths. Bluehost Domain Names
1. Great uptime over 12-months (99.96%)
Hosting companies must ensure that uptime is maintained. If your site goes down, it will be impossible for users to access it. So, consistent uptime should be one of your top priorities when looking at hosting services.
Over 40 web hosts were reviewed and our benchmark for “good” uptime was 99.93%. We prefer 99.93% as our benchmark.
Bluehost has surpassed this benchmark to comfortably keep our test site available for 99.96% over the past 12 month (April 2020-March 2021). The entire year’s downtime was less than four hours.
Check stats Bluehost’s average downtime over the past 12 month is shown below:
March 2021: 100%
February 2021: 99.97%
January 2021 – 100%
December 2020: 99.98%
November 2020: 100%
October 2020: 99.67%
September 2020: 100%
August 2020: 99.99%
July 2020: 99.98%
June 2020: 100% Bluehost Domain Names
May 2020: 99.90% (scheduled maintenance)
April 2020: 99.99%
2. Rapid Page Loading Speed (688ms)
Google has conducted research and found that people who wait longer for pages to load are 32% more likely than others to abandon your website. And it only gets worse with longer page load times.
Google is also more inclined to mobile-first indexing.
You must optimize your website for mobile users to avoid losing traffic.
A slow website can mean lower traffic and sales. Page loading time is, right after uptime and sales numbers, the second most important aspect of your website’s success.
See stats Our test site with Bluehost has offered an average load speed of 688 ms over the past year. It’s not as fast as the top sites, but it’s still pretty good. Bluehost Domain Names
3. Low Introductory Pricing ($2.75/mo)
Bluehost’s default pricing starts at $3.95/month, which is an introductory price from the regular $8.99/month rate.
The good news is that Bluehost has negotiated a price reduction for our readers, dropping the initial price to $2.75/month. This price allows you to get almost everything you need to run a website. Unmetered bandwidth, 50GB SSD storage, and a free SSL Certificate are all included. This would give you a great deal considering their uptime and page loading speed.
Still, the cheapest plan does have a few restrictions that we’re not entirely happy with – but more about this later on.
4. Included with Security Options and Features
Bluehost is known for being one of the most cost-effective options on the marketplace. However, they have a lot of security features and options that we appreciate.
Bluehost offers a free SSL certificate for sites that have the cheapest plan. Bluehost also offers great features such as a free CDN (Cloudflare), a one click WordPress install, multiple CMS integrations and additional eCommerce plugins.
Higher-tier plans come standard with the Spam Experts addon and domain privacy protection. Server backups are also available. Also, you get more advanced security features such as SiteLock, which helps prevent malware attacks.
Codeguard is another protection option that offers daily backups, so that you can rollback older versions of a site if it gets hacked.
Postini, from Google, is the final security tool worth noting. It provides spam protection for email, so suspicious information is blocked from entering your inbox. Bluehost Domain Names
5. Easy to Use for Beginners
Some of the web hosts we’ve seen can be considered the best only if you’re an advanced user. Bluehost is great if you’re a beginner.
Although it’s intuitive and simple, the customer portal can be slow at times. Bluehost’s control panel, cPanel, is also easy to use. You can install WordPress quickly and easily through cPanel. In most cases, it is as simple as a point-and-click.
If you don’t want to use WordPress, you can also begin creating a website with a website builder tool (such as Weebly or Drupal). Drag and drop elements to customize your template.
Bluehost also offers advanced features for users who wish to use their code to build their sites.
6. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Bluehost offers a 30-day money back guarantee on all hosting plans.
You can test out the service and ask for a full refund if you aren’t satisfied. However, we do have some words of caution.
Bluehost’s terms state that these are the conditions under which Bluehost will guarantee your satisfaction.
Only the cost of web hosting can be refunded.
Bluehost will subtract $15.99 from your plan if you have a free domain.
Bluehost does not offer a refund for any requests made after 30 Days.
This isn’t a blanket policy with no questions asked, like some hosts have made it out to be. These points should be agreed upon before you sign up. Bluehost Domain Names
7. 24/7 Customer Support
Bluehost offers 24/7 customer care via live chat and phone as well as an email ticketing system. A vast knowledge base is available that contains answers to frequently asked questions as well as useful information.
We decided to test their live chat option and found it pleasant.
We got answers to our questions quickly, and the representative was knowledgeable. Some responses were a little too generic, but we received helpful, improvised answers to our questions.
8. One Free WordPress Site Transfer
This perk applies to site owners who want to move to Bluehost’s hosted plan.
Bluehost is only just starting to offer a complimentary site transfer with all their plans.
There are a couple of terms to this free service, though. First, you must have a WordPress-based site. And secondly, you have to request the migration within the first 30 days after signing up with a hosting plan.
Contact the customer support team to get started. Follow their instructions. The process usually takes 1-3 business days.
You can only purchase this price if you do not have a WordPress website, or if you have more than one. This covers up to five website migrations as well as 20 email account migrations.
9. The Official WordPress.org Recommended Host
WordPress is the most popular website platform available – 44% of all Internet sites are built using WordPress.
It’s safe to say that they have an authoritative word when it comes to hosting solutions. WordPress recommends only three hosting partners for WordPress sites. Bluehost Domain Names
You can create a WordPress site using almost any web host provider. Bluehost is one the few official partners.
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Cons of Using Bluehost Hosting
Even though we’re happy to see such low introductory prices, the renewal rates can get a bit steep.
Let’s take a closer look at these downsides.
1. Higher Renewal Rates
The best way to get the lowest possible price for hosting is to prepay for one, two, or even three years upfront. While the average monthly price of hosting drops, you still have to commit hundreds of dollars upfront.
If you are not satisfied with their service, you can return your money within 30 days. But, the rates will go up sharply once your plan is finished.
Let’s take the example of a plan that costs $2.75 per month. With a three-year commitment, the renewal price for the next month starts at $8.99 per month.
The next period in this case is three times more expensive than that of the previous.
2. Cheapest Plan Restrictions
Bluehost’s cheapest shared host plan comes with severe restrictions.
One website is allowed, but storage space is limited. The only security feature that you receive is an SSL certificate. You will need to purchase at least the next pricing level if you have multiple sites and require more security.
Sadly, such restrictions on the cheapest plan are quite common in the web hosting industry. Companies compete to lure customers with the lowest prices, while trying to sell decent hosting services at a higher cost. Bluehost Domain Names
Bluehost Pricing, Hosting Plans & Quick Facts
Here’s Bluehost sharing hosting pricing:
| Pricing | $2.75/month Renews at $8.99/mo |
$5.45/month Renews at $11.99/mo |
$5.45/month Renews at $16.99/mo |
$13.95/month Renews at $26.99/mo |
| Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Storage | 50 GB | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Email Accounts | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Other Features | – | • Spam Experts | • Spam Experts • Domain Privacy & Protection • Codeguard Basic |
• 2 Spam Experts • Domain Privacy & Protection • Codeguard Basic • Dedicated IP |
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Quick Facts
- Money-Back: 30-day money-back guarantee
- Website migration: 1 WordPress website transfer is free Other migrations can be done for $149.99 and up to five websites.
- You get a domain for free? Yes, the first year. For $15.99/year, you can renew.
- Sign-up is simple: The process is straightforward and easy.
- Payment Methods
- Hidden Fees, Clauses and Refunds: Domain names will not be refunded. Hosting and domain renewal rates can be much higher than those at the beginning.
- Upsells
- Account activation: In most instances, you will receive an instant activation. If the information is inaccurate or there’s suspicion of fraud, activation might get delayed.
- Control Panel & Dashboard Experience: A simple-to-use and intuitive cPanel
- Installation of Apps & CMS (WordPress Joomla etc. Mojo Marketplace makes installation of apps quick and simple. Bluehost Domain Names
Bluehost: Do We Recommend It?
Yes.
Bluehost has been able to perform slightly better in past years, but they still provide reliable service with decent speeds.
They also offer great security options, a great refund policy, lots of user-friendly apps and multiple hosting plans to fit different customer needs. You can get a special discount of $2.75/month on the pricing.
Still, Bluehost isn’t perfect, though. The renewal rates of hosting plans increase rapidly after the initial signup period. Also, the cheapest plan is subject to some important restrictions.
Bluehost still delivers an acceptable level of performance and excellent value for your money.
Are you a Bluehost user? You can leave a review below, good or bad, as long you are helpful to other visitors. Bluehost Domain Names
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